The marching band had band camp this past week, so Thursday we did the annual Marching Band BBQ. This is my seventh year doing this and it's always a lot of fun!
This year there were 140 hungry kids, staff & volunteers to feed. I had plenty of help this year from some dedicated band parents and my son (who's main job was setting up and maintaining the smokers). It was really nice working out of the stadium concession area again this year since it has a full kitchen setup and plenty of room outside to setup the smokers.
In all we cooked:● 60 lbs Pulled Pork
● 1 Gallon BBQ sauce
● 40 lbs Roasted Potatoes
● 60 lbs Mac & Cheese
● 144 half-ears of Corn on the Cob
● A 10 lb tray of Baked Beans
(all made from scratch)
The total cost (not counting drinks, plates cups, etc) was $266.49 which worked out to a whopping $1.90 per person. Not bad at all! That's the trade off of making everything from scratch.
We arrived early and had the shoulders rubbed and on the MAK 1 Star General by 7:30 am.
After a quick breakfast/coffee break we got to work shucking/prepping the corn.
Making the BBQ Sauce.
40 lbs potatoes washed and ready for prepping.
We kept prepping until noon when we broke for an hour to feed the kids lunch, and grab a bite ourselves. After that it was time for the bulk of the cooking to start with a target serving time of 5:00 pm sharp!
Over the next four hours we had potatoes roasting, macaroni boiling, cheese sauce being made, baked beans smoking, corn boiling, pork being pulled... it was busy (not a lot of time for pics)!
Potatoes ready for roasting.
At 5:00 pm 120 very hungry kids & band staff started rolling up to the concession windows ready to eat!
A couple of happy customers (the girl on the left was already back for seconds).
It was hot and tiring, but thanks to plenty of help it was also a lot of fun! Last night the band their preview show and they sounded great!
